[Program of sanitary education for people with autistic spectrum disorder]

Autism is a developmental disorder that it is characterized by a qualitative alteration of social interaction, communication and repetitive and stereotyped behaviours, interests and activities. Recent studies about health are showing that people with autism have lower hope of life. Among other causes, difficulty to identify and to communicate uneasiness and resistance to allow medical explorations are important factors to consider.

To design and to implant a specific program for people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with the objective of habituating them to the medical explorations so that they admit it and collaborate, facilitating the sanitary personnel's work. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and the maintenance of the potentials improvements.

Our sample was formed by twenty-two children with ASD (mean chronological age, 9;10 years). A quasi-experimental design of interrupted temporary series was carried out.

two grouping variables (clinical characteristics of the groups about QI and about linguistic abilities) as dependent variable a measure of percentage of success has been used through an observation protocol designed for this program.

Improvements in all the groups. Results are not conditioned neither for the level of intellectual abilities (IQ) neither for the existence or not of linguistic abilities. Likewise, it is found that carrying out maintenance sessions in period of seven weeks allows to maintain long term achievements reached by the program. However, we found that those children which were severely impaired could obtain more benefit from more frequent maintenance sessions.